Estimates Debate — Vote Justice

It is great to talk about the mighty achievements and the great story that we have to tell in Vote Justice, and to say what a great Minister of Justice we have in Simon Power, who has been working indefatigably hard—I think that is a word I can use—in this area. Over a period of months now he has been delivering, and he will continue to deliver in a number of ways. As a junior member I am very proud to be part of this Government, because of the way it is delivering on justice. It is very clear to me that this is an area where the people of New Zealand wanted to see a change, an area they believed in, and an area where they did not think they were getting results from the previous Labour Government. Ordinary Kiwis felt very strongly that safety on the streets needed to be improved and that violent crime needed to be dealt with, and they felt that Labour was not providing the answers.

The money involved in Vote Justice is serious. The total appropriation was $400.85 million. That is more money than even Chris Carter would know how to spend. It is a lot of money. It is a serious amount of money.

💬 Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Be very careful.

Oh, I am being careful, I say to Mr Cosgrove, because this is a serious matter that requires care. I am proud of what has happened, and I am proud of what is coming.

In talking about what we have done, I think a lot has already been achieved. In the first 100 days a huge amount was achieved. Sentencing for offences involving children was beefed up, and that is important. In many communities around this country, unfortunately, child abuse is still with us. We have taken action on that issue quickly. We have reversed the 2007 changes to the bail laws, where Labour—and those members do not like to hear this—had liberalised the laws, making it easier for those accused of crimes to get out on bail. We have tipped the balance back in favour of public safety in borderline cases, and that is significant. We have introduced police-issued safety orders to protect victims of domestic violence, by removing those people who pose an immediate threat to them. That is a significant change and it will have a good effect on the streets. We have introduced the Gangs and Organised Crime Bill to clamp down and to get tougher on gangs. Again, that is something that the public very much wanted to see happen. They asked for an effective response during the election campaign, and we have been delivering on that. We have introduced the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, which limits parole for the worst repeat offenders. I ask Grant Robertson how good that is; I think it is very good. We have made wider use of DNA sampling in a bill that will come back to the House shortly. We recognise the power of DNA and the need to use it more efficiently and effectively, and in a broader way than used by the previous Labour administration, including Clayton Cosgrove when he was in Government.

What else will we do? We have already held a thoughtful, thought-provoking conference on the drivers of crime. One thing that came out of that conference quite clearly was that we need to take a new approach to reducing crime and victimisation. Through the work of Minister Simon Power and Dr Pita Sharples we have already seen some very good work being done on that. There was a remarkable degree of unity at that conference, and it has been very good to see things coming out of it. In the coming months the Government will consider a number of the priorities coming out of that conference, and that is exciting to see.

The sale and supply of liquor is another key front that the Ministry of Justice will need to be working on, and that will be good to see. I think that members on all sides of the Chamber would agree that that is a significant issue. There has been abuse for a long period in the area of the sale and supply of liquor, and solutions are needed. The Law Commission has produced a significant work on it, and change is coming.

Legal aid reform is coming. Again, that is significant, because it is not just about the actors; it is also about victims of crime.

Mr Chair—

💬 Chris Hipkins: The real heavy-hitters are up tonight.

Yes, it is a heavy-hitter, because this is a very heavy subject. I say to Mr Hipkins, in case he is unaware, that it is a very important subject that the community and society of New Zealand takes very seriously in terms of equal justice for all. It is an area in which the previous administration failed miserably. In terms of our election promises, that is one of the very key reasons why the people voted for this Government.

We set out a number of targets in terms of our justice policy, and we have achieved all of them. Let me remind members on the other side of the Chamber what some of those targets were. We said we would remove the right of the worst repeat violent offenders to be released on parole, and that was achieved. We said we would introduce legislation to clamp down on criminal gangs—achieved. We said we would introduce legislation to toughen the bail laws, to make it harder for criminals awaiting trial to get bail—achieved. All of those things have been achieved. My friend and colleague Simon Bridges covered other things. Our policies were all laid out before the community and the electorate, prior to the election. We said that we would achieve those things and that is exactly what we have done.

💬 Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Check your Hansard.

We have kept our promises, I say to Mr Cosgrove, as we will continue to do throughout our term of office. Whether those promises concern superannuation or anything else, we will keep them. We will be able to stand at the next election and say that with our hand on our hearts, and those members will have nowhere to go.

A number of other exciting Budget announcements are contained in these estimates. Increasing police numbers was a magnificent policy that the people really responded to. There are 600 new police officers on the streets. There are 300 extra police in Manukau City, who are bringing order to the streets. They are working amongst the community. The previous administration failed in that area. In fact, the previous Minister of Justice and Minister of Police, Annette King, had no idea about the answer to crime. We laid out our platform, and, as promised, we are delivering with the estimates that are now before us.

Let us talk about providing new instruments to the police, to the law and enforcement sector, to enable them to carry out their jobs better than they were able to do under the previous administration. I refer to the use of Tasers. We are addressing a very serious issue. We are instituting more security at the courts. These are very important issues. We need to provide security and confidence to judges, to other court staff, and to witnesses who go to court. We have a rolling programme going out, in terms of enhancing the security of the courts. These are all practical, easy-to-implement measures that the previous administration had the opportunity to undertake over 9 years. What did it do? It did nothing. Crime continued to rise, waiting lists at the courts continued to lengthen, justice was stretched out, and people did not know what they were doing. Justice delayed is justice not done, and this Government is attempting to do something about it.

Another area we are boosting is the probation service, with $153 million to provide better probation services and psychological services to the community. We are increasing prison capacity, under the magnificent leadership of the Minister of Corrections, Judith Collins. She is doing a magnificent job. The law and order spokesman on the other side of the Chamber, Clayton Cosgrove, was flummoxed during question time today. He had nowhere to go, because of the outstanding leadership of the Minister of Corrections. It is all because our policies are reducing the number of prison escapes. He had no answer for members on the other side because of the leadership being shown by this Government.

I congratulate the previous speaker, Paul Quinn, who personified the way that debates on justice must be carried out—with dignity and coherence, and in a very planned and logical manner. It is very important that some forethought is given to justice, and that there is some understanding of the causes of crime and the way to approach those causes. It has been very good to have been part of a National Government with a Minister of Justice who has taken a cautious and programmed approach towards bringing legislation before the House, the manner in which it is debated, and the procedures that address it.

When the National Government was first elected on 8 November, we set about a 100-day plan. We got a lot of flak from members on the other side in respect of that 100-day plan. The reason that it was so unpopular with those members was that it set about, in a cautious and determined way, to achieve the things that we had campaigned on and that we had received a lot of support from the public for. They were not headbanging, knee-jerk reactions. They took a considered approach, and we aimed at achieving various things, including the justice sector. They were outlined very well by the previous speaker, Mr Quinn.

The Minister of Justice talked about four stages to the justice legislative programme. That was the first stage The second stage was to convene a Drivers of Crime seminar with the Hon Pita Sharples, the Minister of Māori Affairs and the Associate Minister of Corrections. A number of us in the House were there, and a number of members of the public working within the sector were also there. What a wide-ranging debate it was. The report on that seminar is due out any day. It looked at what those drivers of crime are, how we could address them in a logical and determined way—the way we should address them in a civilised society—and picked them off, one by one.

The next programme, stage 3, was speeding up the court process. We heard the Minister of Justice announce, and set about introducing, processes that will speed up the delays. As my friend Paul Quinn said just a few moments ago, justice delayed is justice denied.

💬 Hon Member: That is not what he said.

There have been a number of hiccups. Well, he said “justice not done”, but I picked up exactly where he was heading.

We are taking out some of those little hiccups within the system that delay those processes, and are seeking to penalise those people who, for their own gain, would tend to slow them down in order to milk the legal aid system. I think the point has to be made that lawyers have to eat. I am very disappointed when I hear people say that the only people making money out of this are the lawyers. Well, lawyers have to eat. I think that is a fair enough comment to make.

The fourth stage will be to look at some of the defences we have—for instance, provocation. We have had some discussion about that in the last week or so, and we will be addressing it shortly, as well.

The work in the justice area is wide and has taken some creative initiatives over the last little while. Some of them were implemented by the previous Government. They require evaluation. It is particularly difficult to get hold of those evaluations while the funding stream is running, if those evaluations that are already set down are not being run in a parallel way. Across the portfolios, we have found that a lack of forethought and planning on the part of the last Government has seen that the evaluation of some of the pilot schemes—for instance, the one doing very well in my electorate on early childhood low-decile education—did not start until after the funding had run out for the pilot. It is very difficult to maintain that pilot, especially in tough times, because the evaluation has not been running in a parallel way. We are concerned about the way that it has been set up. That is what we have found in opening up the cookie jar that is justice delivery within this country.

But I can say that the justice initiatives taken by the Hon Simon Power show a lot of forethought and a lot of understanding of the justice sector, and it is a pleasure to be working alongside him in this area.